Do Not Pick My Brain

This is one question I receive quite often from beginners - who are new to online income and in their learning mode still, eager to acquire clients for their skills and execute orders

Should we share samples of our work with prospects who ask for it?

I would like to ask the following first. Do you understand what these mean?

Intellectual Property

Content Exclusivity

 Non-Disclosure Agreement

If you don’t, please google

And one final question – Do you have client approval to share the work they paid for? It is definitely not your property, after you sold it (Think of any three dimensional product to get the point)

That is precisely my point. Enough said.

Then how do we handle this question from clients?

I do business plans, pitch decks, learning modules, content strategy, storyboard, web content or whatever.

Someday I even plan to expand my services and do the following from the comfort of my home

Bid management: Create multi million dollars proposal. Why not?

Stakeholders Management: Handle 18 to 20 stakeholders of a company  -Pricing, Technology, Operations, Transition, Applications, Risk office, Training, Human resource, recruitment, leadership, solution expert, external consultant and this list is really long to create that winning proposal. I had a win ratio of 25% and a conversion ratio of 45% in my corporate career - Seriously, why not?

Now the point is, once I am done, do I share sample of this proposal and toss it around to prospects for similar orders? It is not about ethics or legal implications anymore - It is not about common sense either. It is just - You. I consider it blasphemy

Here is a solution:

Please provide paid sample which means let them pay you for a sample of your work. Do a dummy project for them and let them keep it. If they do not like it, do a quick gap analysis based on their review and feedback, do your mathematics if you can accommodate those revisions in the same quote  - I would recommend you do because it is not about just an order, it is about your learning, and building a fruitful business relationship.

Getting quotes and samples to test the market is not new. It has been there since sliced bread.

I also see a trend now where a few buyers probably ask samples because they cannot afford you however they need your thoughts so that they can get a cheaper version of it from someone else. 

The fact is, I would be more than glad to share a sample if the content (Say, a business plan) was pertaining to my own business and not a client's. Because I know, any one can read the plan, imitate the plan, capture the same headings however cannot meet the objectives of the plan unless the line of research is based on the same thinking as mine. 

Here is a conversation with one of my prospects

Style and approach? Yeah right

Here is my response:

Now can you guess if this prospect ever returned and ordered from me? Why would he? It was just a futile attempt to pick stuff from my brain. All samples are just that - a give away of your thinking horizon. 

Now it is your call how you want handle this question in future.

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